Roger Taney’s since-removed statue in Annapolis. Photo via City of Annapolis.
The Democratic president of Maryland’s senate is upset about emails – specifically those relating to the removal of Roger Taney’s bronze likeness outside the State House.
In a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan (shared by WBAL this morning), Mike Miller concluded that “voting on this matter by email was just plain wrong.” On Wednesday, the trust held a vote by email, rather than in person, to remove the statue of the Supreme Court chief justice known best for ruling that black people could only be property, and certainly not U.S. citizens, in the 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford.
Miller and Hogan are two of the four voting members in the Maryland State House Trust, along with House of Delegates Speaker Mike Busch and Charles Edson, board chairman of the Maryland Historical Trust. Hogan, Busch and Edelson each voted to remove the statue; Miller didn’t vote.
Overnight last night, crews carted off the bronze statue of Taney from the State House lawn.
Miller evidently was expecting more. In his letter, he wrote that he had called for a public meeting, which he noted took place when the state decided to install a statue of Baltimore-born Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1996.
“This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public meeting and public conversation should have occurred,” Miller said.
He dove into the complex history of Taney’s legal career and personal life: how he he worked to help free slaves early in his life; how he represented an abolitionist minister when he was an attorney; how he authored an opinion about South Carolina’s attempt to secede from the Union that President Abraham Lincoln used to deem the move invalid.
Miller had said earlier this week that he opposed removing Taney’s bust from the grounds of the State House, but that he wouldn’t stand in Hogan’s way. A day before, Busch had openly called for its removal. The governor surprised many by agreeing with him, a complete reversal from his views in 2015.
The State House Trust seldom meets in person, preferring to cast votes by email instead, the Sun’s Pamela Wood reports. In fact, the group has only met twice in person since 2010, according to WBAL.
Hogan’s spokesman, Doug Mayer, told both of the above outlets, “Miller is completely within his right to continue defending Roger Taney. We have to agree to disagree.”
Taney’s statue is the fifth one removed around Maryland this week, following the four extractions ordered by Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore overnight on Wednesday. Baltimore and Annapolis are among a group number of cities that have dismantled and relocated monuments with Confederate ties in the wake of last week’s deadly violence between neo-Nazis and counter-protesters in the streets of Charlottesville.
An aerial shot of the U.S. Naval Academy. Photo via USNA.
In an unusual fiasco early Sunday morning, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate is accused of scaling and breaking into a downtown Annapolis home, and police are investigating why an officer fired his gun during the incident when there was no apparent threat.
The Annapolis Police Department said officers responded early Sunday to a house in the 100 block of Duke of Gloucester Street in the city’s historic downtown area for a report of a burglary. Upon arrival, a woman who lives in the house told them someone had kicked in a door and was still inside.
When officers went in to nab their suspect, later ID’d as 22-year-old Kevin Leyland, he broke a window and jumped out, police said. Officers were on the ground outside waiting. After a brief scuffle with police – Leyland was trying to get away, they say – he was taken to a hospital and then charged with burglary, resisting arrest, destruction of property and other offenses.
According to The Capital, there were some other strange circumstances. Police found Leyland shirtless, and learned he had climbed up the house and entered through a patio door. Furthermore, an officer fired his gun while inside the house. Police are investigating why, and haven’t named the officer who pressed the trigger.
Additionally, Leyland was no ordinary suspect; he’s a graduate of the city’s prestigious U.S. Naval Academy. Court records show he was issued a criminal summons, rather than arrested, and is due to appear in court in Glen Burnie on Sept. 20.
The academy’s athletics website indicates he was a member of its heavyweight crew team this past season. He’s listed as a resident of Cheltenham, Pa.
A spokesman for the academy confirmed Leyland is a member of the U.S. Navy, but said no information was available on whether Sunday’s incident had affected his standing. “It’s a law enforcement matter,” he said.
Official portrait of President Donald Trump, via the White House
All eyes, including those of President Donald Trump, were on Baltimore and Annapolis last week when leaders ordered the removals of longstanding monuments to Confederate leaders.
During an unfiltered speech at a campaign rally last night in Phoenix, Trump told thousands packed into a convention center that officials orchestrating removals of Confederate monuments “are trying to take away our history. And our weak leaders, they do it overnight. These things have been there for 150 years, for 100 years. You go back to a university, and it’s gone. Weak, weak people.”
While the “university” remark could have applied to Duke University, the University of Texas or Bowdoin College, Maryland very likely was in Trump’s sights when he made his remarks. Last week, one day after city council members voted to remove the city’s four controversial monuments to Confederate leaders, soldiers and families, and a Supreme Court chief justice who advanced their cause, Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered overnight extractions of each one.
The oldest statue, a bust of Roger Taney that sat in Mount Vernon, had been around since 1887, while the newest one, depicting Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson mounted on horses, arrived at the Wyman Park Dell in 1948.
Pugh said the next day that given the tense national social climate stirred by a violence white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Va., on Aug. 12, “I think it’s very important we move quickly and quietly…and so that’s what I did.”
Within the same week, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland House Speaker Mike Busch orchestrated the removal of a bust of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney outside the State House in Annapolis. And on Monday evening, Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman had a stone commemorating Confederate soldiers removed from outside Ellicott City’s circuit courthouse. As with Baltimore’s monuments, both of those removals happened in the wee hours of the night.
Asked about the president’s comments at her press briefing this morning, Mayor Catherine Pugh said she is “praying” for the president, per WBAL.
“I’m praying for him because he needs to understand that love is the answer and not disrespecting anyone,” she said.
Pugh also defended her choice as one that protected public safety, saying, “I didn’t want people walking down my street and making noise and fighting each other and bickering.”
While Baltimore is still sorting out what to do with its Confederate monuments – numerous parties have inquired, but nothing’s set in stone, Pugh said last week – leaders in Annapolis and Howard County have arranged for their transfers to museums.
Kittleman said yesterday that the plan to relocate Howard County’s Confederate memorial to the Howard County Historical Society will provide appropriate historical context about the piece. “We cannot and should not erase the past. We must learn from it.”
Annapolis’ most famous deli is under new management, though its outgoing longtime owner promises everything there will remain as is.
Ted Levitt, whose family has run Chick and Ruth’s Delly on Main Street in Annapolis for 52 years, announced on his personal Facebook page last night that he’s officially sold his eatery. He’s worked there since its inception, he wrote, but he and his wife, Beth, figured it was finally time for a change in their lifestyle.
“It has truly been living the American Dream running our family business and meeting all our friends over the years,” his post read. “We have enjoyed watching over 5 generations of families grow up.”
Now they’ll be retiring to spend some more time with their four children. Fortunately, he says his old-school hangout will remain unchanged. New owner and longtime customer Keith Jones plans to leave the sprawling menu untouched and keep “all the traditions and service the same,” Levitt wrote.
“He is a very talented man [and] has been a good customer of Chick and Ruth’s for years,” he said of Jones. “He wants to keep everything the same. If it works don’t fix it.”
Many know Chick and Ruth’s for its politically inspired sandwiches, including Gov. Larry Hogan’s duo of the “Hogan’s Hero” cheesesteak and the “Bipartisan” crab soup, made of Maryland crab and cream of crab, and Sen. Ben Cardin’s popular eponymous sandwich, a traditional Reuben.
The spot has served as a reliable eatery for politicians from up the road, midshipmen from the nearby Naval Academy, and locals and tourists alike for half a century. It’s also been featured on the Travel Channel, thanks to its absurd food challenges that drew an appearance from professional hungryman Adam Richman.
The deli’s namesake former owners, Chick and Ruth — Ted’s parents — bought the deli in 1955, and he worked for them since childhood, save for a few years when he as away earning degrees from the Culinary Institute of America and Florida International University.
Levitt wrote on Facebook that he and his wife will still be around. While she continues selling real estate, he’ll be building music boxes and working on antique car and model train restorations in his garage.
“Thanks for the friendship over the years,” he wrote, “and looking forward to seeing you soon.”
Annapolis Mayor-elect Gavin Buckley. Photo via Gavin Buckley for Mayor/Facebook.
A small business owner and first-time politician unseated Republican incumbent Mike Pantelides last night as mayor of Annapolis.
Pantelides, 34, conceded the election to Gavin Buckley, 54, shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday night, The Capital reports. Preliminary voting numbers show Buckley won big with 62 percent of the vote.
“To all of you who embraced my campaign and voted for me on Tuesday – thank you!” Buckley wrote in a message to supporters on his campaign website. “I am extremely grateful for your support and I am so proud that our vision for a strong, inclusive and vibrant Annapolis is shared by so many.”
He thanked Pantelides “for his work on behalf of our City,” adding, “To his supporters and those who did not vote for me: I want you to know that I’m committed to working with you and on your behalf, because this City belongs to all of us.”
Four years earlier, Pantelides squeezed out a victory with a 59-vote margin over Democrat Joshua Cohen. He presided over the city as it introduced police body cameras, and as it weathered an uptick in homicides last year and early this year.
“The work we’ve done the last four years, we should be proud of,” he told supporters at what turned out to be his concession party, The Capital reports.
Buckley, an Australian immigrant, has been an active community member in Annapolis for 25 years. He’s credited with helping to revitalize West Street, a formerly run-down section of town, into an arts and entertainment hot spot for the city. He’s a co-owner of four restaurants — Tsunami, Lemongrass, Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge and Sailor Oyster Bar — all of which are located on West Street.
He has big ambitions for Annapolis. One of his spitball ideas – a permanent Ferris wheel downtown – caused a stir during campaign season, even prompting attack ads from Pantelides. (Buckley clarified in October that he wasn’t serious: “THERE WILL BE NO Ferris Wheel built at City Dock under my administration,” he said in a statement.)
Pantelides’ loss was among a tide of wins for Democrats around the region. In Virginia, voters elected Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam over Republican lobbyist Bob Gillespie to be the next governor. (Gov. Larry Hogan stumped for Gillespie, a hard-line conservative, this week.) In New Jersey, residents shifted control of the governor’s seat to Democratic hands after eight years of having Republican Chris Christie at the helm.
Voters in Frederick, another large Maryland city, also unseated their Republican mayor, Randy McClement, opting for Democrat Michael O’Connor instead.
To no one’s surprise, the annual Christmas parade in Hampden and Medfield has been recognized by the internet as one of the best holiday festivities in the country.
The Mayor’s Annual Christmas Parade, which just completed its 45th run last weekend, earned enough votes online to win third place in a recent USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice poll. This year’s parade featured the classic mix of marching bands, gaggles of Harley-Davidson riders, floats with TV news celebrities, Mummers and Santa himself. Thousands parked themselves in chairs or stood on sidewalks to watch them move down Falls Road and onto W. 36th Street.
As a bonus, right behind the mayor’s parade in the 2017 poll was Annapolis’ Eastport Yacht Club Lights Parade in fourth place. The annual event just completed its 35th rendition on Saturday, with dozens of sailboats and yachts showboating through Maryland’s capital city. The Capital Gazette reports the two inches of snow that fell didn’t keep crowds away; event organizers said wind would have been the only element that could shut it down.
The yacht club’s parade took first in last year’s 10Best Readers’ Choice poll. Hampden and Annapolis ranked only behind the America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (second) Philly’s centuries-old Mummers Parade for 2017.
Click here and here to view photos recapping the local festivities.
Comptroller Peter Franchot hoists a beer with Maryland brewers. Image Courtesy of Comptroller Peter Franchot’s Facebook.
After a months-long process of forming a task force on the state’s beer laws and holding meetings, Comptroller Peter Franchot released proposals in December 2016 for loosening restrictions on Maryland’s craft breweries.
Among the suggested changes: remove restrictions on production and taproom sales, allow self-distribution and remove restrictions on contract brewing.
When I talked to Franchot in October for City Paper, he told me that voters of all stripes support helping brewers: “[T]hey all like the concept of Maryland-produced craft beer.”
Eric L. Best, a beer distributor who served on the Reform on Tap Task Force and the vice president of the Maryland Beer Wholesalers Association, is part of a coalition planning to fight a bill to change the beer industry.
Though the task force brought together various stakeholders—brewers, distributors, legislators and business advocates, just to name a few—Best told Dresser that all the recommendations were “absolutely a fait accompli.”
My interview with Franchot proved to be a bit of a flash point, particularly a passage where the comptroller argued the current restrictions placed on the alcohol industry have nothing to do with health and safety, and that people who say so are “lying.”
“Anyone who says regulation isn’t important to alcohol denies the concern of excessive drinking,” Best told The Sun. “Distributors have been called liars. That’s pretty harsh.”
And as WBAL 1090’s Robert Lang reported on Dec. 29, House Speaker Michael E. Busch, who holds considerable sway over any bill’s fate, questioned why the chairmen of the House and Senate committees that oversee alcohol were not invited to participate in the task force, and also “suggested relieving Franchot of his power to to enforce liquor laws, since Franchot criticized a craft beer bill that lawmakers approved this year.”
The legislation that inspired Franchot to form a task force, House Bill 1283, was passed during the last legislative session to, in part, help Guinness open its first North American brewery in Baltimore County. Not long after, craft brewers complained they would be hurt by some of the restrictions laid out in the bill, and while existing breweries were eventually allowed to have their current taproom hours grandfathered in, advocates said House Bill 1283 would still harm anyone trying to open a new brewery in Maryland.
Fallout was swift. Virginia began aggressively courting breweries in Maryland, and Flying Dog, a nationally recognized brewery based in Frederick, put plans for an expansion “on permanent hold” to see how things shake out in the legislature.
The 90-day legislative session is set to begin in Annapolis on Jan. 10.
On his Facebook page, Franchot shared The Sun‘s article and wrote that the issue is “reform for consumers and local community businesses, vs. the status quo for the special interests and corporate monopolies.”
“Having enjoyed a restful holiday,” he added, “I’m fired up and ready to go in 2018!”
Gov. Larry Hogan says he’s going after the “professional politician” in the State House.
Putting federally indicted Baltimore state Sen. Nate Oaks on the spot at a press conference today, Maryland’s GOP governor said he plans to introduce a bill to limit all Maryland General Assembly members to two terms in an effort to target corruption in Annapolis.
The bill, dubbed the Government Accountability Act of 2018, would limit all members to two terms in the House of Delegates or Senate, capping the maximum number of years one can spend in either house at eight years.
“Our founding fathers did not envision professional politicians,” Hogan said, referencing how George Washington stepped down as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1783. (He was elected president six years later.)
The governor harped on Oaks, a 71-year-old Baltimore politician indicted last year on federal fraud, obstruction of justice and other charges for allegedly accepting more than $15,000 in bribes. The Sun’s Justin Fenton reported yesterday that Oaks, who’s held office for 30 combined years, was actually a target of a larger corruption probe targeting Baltimore City Council members and state lawmakers, according to Oaks’ lawyers.
Republicans have pressed for Oaks to step down, to no avail. He’s notably already been ousted from the legislature before: City Paperreported that in 1988, while serving his second term in the House of Delegates, Oaks was convicted of theft charges for double-billing expenses to the state and his campaign fund, and automatically forfeited his seat. Nevertheless, he was re-elected six years later, and promoted by Hogan himself to the Senate last year to fill a vacant seat.
Hogan said Oaks “shamefully will still be on the floor of the Senate” when it convenes for day one of the 2018 legislative session.
The governor said polling results show Marylanders favor term limits for elected officials. (A search for such a poll turned up empty, though Goucher Poll director Mileah Kromer told Baltimore Fishbowl national polls indicate most voters support for them.)
Hogan also re-introduced a bill he proposed last year to require the Maryland legislature to live-stream all of its hearings. The 2017 bill never escaped a Senate committee, an outcome Hogan criticized at his presser today.
“Marylanders deserve accountability and transparency from their elected officials,” the governor said.
In one short year, Trump has reversed more than 60 federal environmental regulations. The gutting of federal green regulations makes state-level environmental legislation proposed in this year’s Maryland General Assembly session that much more critical.
The list of federal environmental regulations reversed, rolled back, delayed or cancelled by Trump so far is so long that The New York Times keeps a running tally. From climate, coal and toxic chemicals to air pollution, sewage and wildlife protections, few areas have been left untouched by the Trump administration.
The good news is that your voice has more power and punch at the state-level.
“Citizens might be surprised to learn that we don’t receive a lot of constituent feedback about different bills,” said State Del. Brooke Lierman, who represents Baltimore City’s 46th District. “If I get five calls on any bill, that’s a lot. Ten calls is rare. Citizen emails, calls, or letters make a real difference in a legislator’s perception of constituent’s views on legislation.”
Below are Maryland’s major eco-bills up for consideration before the General Assembly this year.
(Note: Rumor has it that the state bill drafting group is backlogged since it’s an election year, and many bills haven’t been assigned. This article will be updated as bill titles are published online.)
Sponsored by Del. Shane Robinson of Montgomery County’s 39th District, this bill creates a framework for a transition to 100 percent clean renewable electricity by 2035. Key provisions include defining renewable electricity as the kind that comes only from emission-free energy sources (i.e. solar, wind), and developing incentive programs for in-state generated solar and offshore wind.
Sponsored by Del. C. William Frick, of Montgomery County’s 16th District, and Sen. Brian J. Feldman, of Montgomery County’s 15th District, this climate bill raises the state’s target percentage of sourced renewable energy from 25 percent by 2020 to 50 percent by 2030. With an eye toward job development, this bill proposes: Investing in women, veteran and minority-owned businesses; phasing out trash-incineration energy from the Renewable Portfolio Standard; and increasing solar and wind energy financial incentives.
Maryland law today requires 25 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020, but Maryland interestingly defines “renewable” energy made from burning trash, biomass (wood) and nasty black liquor sludge from paper mills along with wind, solar and hydroelectricity.
If anyone questions the sense of urgency of controlling climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions, check out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s chart below. Scientists predict that 450 part per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will be the “we’ve cooked the planet” point. Planet Earth will reach 450 ppm very soon.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, carbon dioxide levels are fast approaching 450 ppm.
Trash the Toxic Food Foam
One bill, co-sponsored by Lierman, targets food materials proven to harm the environment.
Lierman and Sen. Cheryl Kagan of Montgomery County are taking a second shot at prohibiting restaurants and others from using polystyrene foam food containers. The bill also prohibits the sale of polystyrene food containers in retail stores.
Foam food packaging is a cheap, petroleum-based plastic designed for consuming food and drink on the go. The to-go part explains why polystyrene is a majority of litter collected in streams and on streets; since foam clamshells and cups are mostly used when people are eating and drinking far from a trash can, a lot of it becomes litter. Since 2014, more than 700,000 foam containers have been removed from the Baltimore Harbor alone.
When foam litter breaks into those little pieces that seem to be everywhere, and eventually enter waterways, each piece soaks up 10 times the toxins than other plastics, and eventually becomes toxic fish and bird food.
It’s also just plain tacky.
Someone’s Thinking About the Trees
4. Improving the 1991 Forest Conservation Act. (To be introduced; no text available)
State Del. Anne Healey, of Prince George’s County’s 22nd District, and Sen. Ronald N. Young, of Frederick and Washington counties, will propose legislation to increase our state’s tree canopy.
Despite 1991 state legislation enacted to conserve Maryland’s forests, too many trees are being cut down to pave the way for development. According to Benjamin Alexandro, a water policy advocate for the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, new data suggests that Maryland lost more than 100,000 acres of forests since 1991, and another 35,000 acres will be cleared — and not replaced — by 2025.
A 2011 forest task force analyzed the reasons for our tree loss. Their recommendations are the bedrock of this bill meant to bolster the forest conservation’s act: Identify and protect our state’s prime forest lands, increase tree replacement percentages and add teeth to the current law to ensure replacement trees become mature trees.
Eastern Shore residents living near poultry-concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have been complaining about higher levels of sickness and respiratory illnesses because of nearby chicken farm buildings. This bill would require the Maryland Department of the Environment to conduct a first-time air quality monitoring of the emissions from the large exhaust systems found on CAFO buildings.
“For years, we’ve known the dangers that industrial poultry operations can have on surrounding communities,” said Meg Robbins, Maryland organizer for the nonprofit Food and Water Watch. “In Maryland, we have a chance to learn exactly what is going into the air around these operations. Marylanders deserve to know actual data on what chemicals are emitted from CAFO exhaust systems. This data will help citizens assess any potential health risks.”
Introduced by Del. Dana M. Stein, of Baltimore County’s 11th District, this bill would ban use of chloropyrofis, a widely used pesticide known to harm children’s brains. Because studies suggested that this pesticide is more harmful to human health than originally known, the Obama administration banned its use in 2015. Last year, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt reversed the ban for further EPA study.
Another bill is forthcoming that would strengthen blood lead-level testing limits statewide and require mandatory intervention when levels exceed maximum allowed limits. We’ll provide an update as soon as the bill is introduced.
A bill that would allow female rape victims to legally revoke the parental rights of their assailants passed unanimously in the Maryland State Senate today.
SB2, proposed by Montgomery County state Sen. Brian Feldman, would let courts terminate parental rights of “an individual convicted of or found by clear and convincing evidence to have committed an act of nonconsensual sexual conduct against the other parent that resulted in the conception of a child.”
A key phrase here is “clear and convincing evidence,” a lower burden of proof than the one that exists in criminal court – “beyond a reasonable doubt” – which gives women some added leeway in trying to keep their accused rapists out of their children’s lives.
The Senate voted 45-0 in favor of the bill, to cheers from advocates for rape survivors.
“We are grateful that the Senate has moved Maryland one step closer to giving rape survivors access to the courts to terminate the parental rights of a rapist when a child was conceived through rape,” said Lisae Jordan, executive director and counsel for the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, in an email to Baltimore Fishbowl. “We look forward to the House taking the same action tomorrow.”
For 10 years, advocates for rape survivors have pushed for such a change to state law. But legislators and other opponents raised concerns about passing a law that would effectively revoke the parental rights of someone for a crime they may not have been convicted of.
Maryland is currently one of only six states that doesn’t allow women to terminate the parental rights of their accused rapists. In the current system, victims oftentimes must face their accusers in court to negotiate custody.
A similar proposal nearly made it to the governor’s desk last spring, but floundered on the final day of the General Assembly session, when an all-male committee of lawmakers failed to iron out the differences between House and Senate versions of the bill before midnight.
But that shortcoming pushed lawmakers to submit the proposal as emergency legislation in this year’s session — as early as last August — meaning the law would take effect as soon as Gov. Larry Hogan signs it.
Hogan himself has voiced support for the legal change. “No rapist should be allowed to maintain their right as a parent, and no victim should ever be forced to interact with their attacker,” he remarked at a press conference earlier this month.
HB1, the House of Delegates’ version of the proposal, passed out of committee today, and is expected to go before the full House tomorrow. All but one of the chamber’s delegates have co-sponsored the bill, meaning its odds of passage right away are strong.
Maryland’s new paid sick leave law is nearly on the books, but a proposal to delay its implementation until the summer has advanced in Annapolis.
State senators today voted 28-16 to push back the day the new law takes effect until July 1.
The General Assembly voted last year to require businesses with at least 15 employees to give full-timers five days of paid sick leave per year and allow part-timers to accrue sick leave time as well. Smaller businesses would also be required to let employees accrue unpaid sick leave.
Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed the bill in May 2017, saying it was overly burdensome to small businesses, but the Democrat-heavy General Assembly overturned his veto on the first day of the session last month. Under state law, a bill becomes law 30 days after an override of a governor’s veto.
Charles County Sen. Thomas Middleton, who co-sponsored the paid leave bill, proposed the a bill requiring a two-month delay in implementation so as to give small businesses more time to prepare for the change and adjust payroll systems. An amendment added today extended the delay to July.
The measure now heads to the House of Delegates. If lawmakers don’t act, the paid sick leave law will take effect on Sunday, Feb. 11.
Hogan’s office has criticized the new law, saying it has “serious flaws.” The governor has proposed a tax credit bill for small businesses that his office says “will provide direct aid to help with compliance costs” for the new paid sick leave requirements. His proposal hasn’t advanced out of committee in either house.
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — Murder-for-hire is a misdemeanor in Maryland, and prosecutors have just three years to bring charges. State lawmakers from both parties want to change that.
A bill, co-sponsored by Delegates Geraldine Valentino-Smith, D-Prince George’s, and Susan McComas, R-Harford, would remove the statute of limitations for prosecuting solicitation to commit first-degree murder. It would also make solicitation, regardless of whether it resulted in death, a felony instead of a misdemeanor.
“Solicitation – which would involve the urging, advising or otherwise inciting a person to commit murder – is a heinous crime, a serious crime in our society,” Valentino-Smith said. “The time that has lapsed since it occurred should not be relevant.”
A 2017 law extended the window to prosecute from one year to three. Lt. Sean Gagen, deputy director of the Montgomery County Police Department-Major Crimes Division, said the recent change was a step in the right direction but didn’t go far enough.
“Murder investigations can be extremely complex and require a great deal of time and resources,” Gagen told lawmakers. “Some investigations take years to finally develop.”
Gagen, who was joined by other officers to testify on behalf of the House bill (HB0778), said increased gang violence in Maryland calls for more time to prosecute. In many cases, he said, gang leaders will try to distance themselves from the act by directing another member to commit the murder.
But with more sophisticated crime labs that are able to analyze forensic evidence, a thorough investigation could help reveal an accomplice, police said.
“The result of such a long investigative process would be worth it if we have the time to make the case and seek the appropriate penalties for the crime,” Gagen said.
The bill doesn’t stop at repealing the statute of limitations, though.
Once a conviction could be made, the charge would be strengthened from a misdemeanor to a felony. William Katcef, an assistant state’s attorney from Anne Arundel, pointed out the irony of such a minimal punishment for a serious crime.
“Theft over $1,500 is a felony,” Katcef told lawmakers. “Bad check over $1,500 is a felony. Interference with a horse race is a felony. But solicitation to commit murder is a misdemeanor.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is opposed to the bill, or any proposal to eliminate statutes of limitations, because they “…provide judicial safeguards for the accused, and particularly those who are innocent from any wrongdoing,” according to written testimony.
Their testimony continued: “As time passes…, crucial memories may be forgotten, tangible evidence may be misplaced, key witnesses may have died, and as a result once-exculpatory evidence may be impossible to obtain.”
Maryland spends more than $38,000 per prisoner, the ACLU wrote, and that by increasing the maximum sentence from three years to life, costs would go up.
In a legislative hearing including testimony from law enforcement officials and state prosecutors, perhaps the most compelling case came from Gale Seaton, a mother on a 13-year mission for justice.
In 2005, her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Stacey Seaton, was killed in a murder-for-hire scheme.
The man who hired the killer, McDonald Abraham III, was arrested and charged with murder in 2009, according to court documents, too late to prosecute solicitation to commit the 2005 killing. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a handgun violation and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
But Valentino-Smith told Capital News Service that the most serious evidence is often related to the solicitation.
To that end, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said they would have used details learned later about Seaton’s killing to secure a life sentence on charges of conspiracy to commit murder – if it weren’t too late.
“Mr. Abraham deserved that punishment and Stacy Seaton’s family deserved that justice,” Alsobrooks told lawmakers.
Seaton said she will continue to see this through.
“I got life without the possibility of peace,” Seaton told lawmakers. “My daughter got a death sentence. McDonald Abraham got a slap on the wrist.”
Among the eight candidates running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination this June, only state Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) and Del. Rushern Baker (D-Prince George’s County, from 1994-2003) have ever served in a state-level elected office. A resident of Kensington, an affluent suburb several miles north of the D.C.-Maryland border, Madaleno is now in his 16th year in Annapolis–a quality that he says makes him the most qualified contestant to beat Gov. Larry Hogan in the November election.
Madaleno identifies as a progressive, championing the $15 minimum statewide minimum wage as his cause in the State House, and pushing for tuition-free college, a single-payer health care system and criminal justice reforms such as treatment-focused sentencing for drug offenders. He was the first openly gay man elected to the Maryland Senate, and, if elected in November, would set the same milestone for the office of governor.
While he hasn’t represented Baltimore constituents directly, Madaleno says he has worked for a number of Baltimore-born officeholders in his career. Last month, he tapped local businesswoman and former O’Malley administration aide Luwanda Jenkins as his running mate.
Madaleno holds no punches when discussing Hogan–something we’ve seen prior to and during his campaign–and, in our interview, harped on both the similarities between Hogan and President Donald Trump and Hogan’s penchant for avoiding confrontation with Trump.
We took a few minutes this week to chat with the Montgomery County lawmaker about his campaign to challenge Hogan, his track record in Annapolis, his ideas fixing the funding gap for Baltimore City Public Schools and more. Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation.
Baltimore Fishbowl: It’s a pretty crowded field of Democrats running for governor. What sets you apart?
My extensive record of accomplishments for the people of the state of Maryland. As a legislator, I’ve actually been working on the issues that our next governor is going to have to deal with, from education to transportation, the environment, workforce development, all of those issues, I alone have been immersed in for the last 16 years, of the candidates. I’m doing something a little bit different in both Maryland and American politics. I’m running for an office at a level of government where I’ve consistently served at for the last 16 years.
BFB: I’ve noted in other interviews with candidates that they have not served in political office. Beyond the given—that you have worked in politics—do you think there’s an additional quality from serving that has prepared you for this office?
In that time, I have developed the relationships, my own personal relationships, with the other people who most likely will continue to be in decision-making roles in the other branches of government, who you have to share governance with. I have a firsthand relationship and experience with the outside groups that you have to deal with, a degree of trust and credibility for when we sit down at a table. I’m not new to them, and they’re not new to me. I don’t need someone leading me around to give me the background on what needs to be done, how we’ve gotten to this point. I know the state government, I know the state agencies, I know why policies have been made over time.
I’ll give you one little tiny vignette. I was at an event in Howard County and I was talking about, you know, ‘We need to make sure we beat Bob Flanagan,’ the Republican delegate in the single-member district [9B] in Howard County. I was listing the Republican candidates that we need to beat in the next election, and somebody stood up and said to me, ‘Oh, you are really well-staffed that you have those names on the top of your tongue.’ And I was like, ‘I have those names, I know these people.’ So it’s that sort of unique, in-depth experience that I bring. And especially in a moment when we see what the Republican Party has done in pushing forward a complete outsider into the presidency, you can see what the lack of experience, the lack of relationships, all of those things have an impact.
Now, I would never compare any of the other people in this field to Donald Trump. But I think, as an example, it is very important to have these sorts of relationships, the experience. And that’s why over the last several cycles, you have seen it takes awhile for someone to learn how to be governor. I don’t think I’m going to have that learning curve because I’m immersed in the issues that will face our next governor. No one will be able to hit the ground running as fast as I will be when sworn in.
BFB: Governor Hogan has generally avoided criticizing or praising the Trump administration, kind of keeping his distance. Would you approach the job differently?
Absolutely. I would first point out that Larry Hogan had absolutely no problem criticizing Barack Obama. Just go back and look at the letter he sent to Obama when the whole issue of Syrian refugees came up. The Republican Party in general was trying to sow fear around Syrian refugees. He was more than happy to jump on the bandwagon and criticize and get involved in national policy when there was a Democrat in office. Now that it’s someone that can hurt him, he runs and hides, and that’s not the type of leadership the people of Maryland deserve.
We have an enormous economic dependency on the federal government. The federal government isn’t just an abstract thing to the people of Maryland; the federal government is our single largest employer. The governor of Maryland should be actively engaged in pushing and prodding Congress on federal appropriations, just like the governor is willing to go out on a limb and talk about any job effort that would bring 10 or 20 jobs to the state. The federal government brings hundreds of thousands of jobs, and our governor hides. Right there, any governor should be involved, any year. This isn’t about necessarily Hogan or Trump, this is just what a smart governor should be doing. I think just because it’s Trump and because Hogan’s only priority is to get himself re-elected, he’s hiding from all of these responsibilities.
I would be aggressive at advocating for the interests of the people of the state of Maryland. That means looking out for all of the federal employees who call Maryland home, the federal agencies who are based in Maryland. That means standing up to Donald Trump when he’s weakening the fabric of our nation, whether it’s the programs that people depend on, like Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security, or it’s talking about why our norms of governance are so important.
I guess the important thing to say is that I’m not afraid of Donald Trump, personally or politically. And I would point out to you, if you’ve spent any time looking at it, Larry Hogan shares a lot in common with the president, both having been real estate developers. There’s a great quote that the governor’s spokesperson gave a few months ago about, you know, ‘Larry Hogan, he’s always negotiating, everything is a negotiation, always negotiating,’ just like Donald Trump. And I don’t know if you saw the article that Maryland Matters put out about two weeks ago that detailed the governor’s continued active engagement in his real estate holdings.
BFB: You’ve made minimum wage a policy priority. How would you address naysayers’ concerns about regional economic effects of a $15 minimum wage, such as how people say businesses will move to states with lower wage requirements?
Because this is fundamental to the American style of governance and federalism, that when the federal government fails to act, states push the agenda by moving forward. And you need states like Maryland to be pushing up their minimum wage to put more and more pressure on the federal government to catch up. We need to push forward with that. The Economic Policy Institute put out a study that [showed] wage growth has been strongest for the average workers in states that have moved forward with the minimum wage.
I love how the conversation is always around, ‘Oh, this is bad, this will harm business,’ and no one looks at all the workers it will benefit. Look at the fact that you’ll be able to actually work a full-time job and not live in poverty in the state of Maryland if you have a $15 minimum wage.
It is, understandably, business interests that have a louder bullhorn when it comes to these sorts of issues. I am keenly aware of that when it comes to one aspect of my legislation, which is to phase out the tipped-worker exclusion to make sure that tipped workers get an opportunity to also be paid a minimum wage, especially when the Trump administration is trying to weaken protections for tipped workers. Tipped workers are so rarely organized, there’s almost no one speaking up for them. And understandably, I can’t criticize them, because this is what the restaurant association is supposed to do, right, is to look out for the interests of their members or the restaurant owners. And that means looking out for maximizing their profits however they can. That’s how the system works. I get it, but who’s looking out for the little person?
BFB: What would you do to address crime and policing reform in Baltimore, in whatever capacity the governor’s office can?
I think it’s helping to make sure the state remains a partner with the city in doing whatever reforms are necessary to help fight against the conditions that cause crime in the short term, and in the long term. I think it is everything from making sure that the city has the resources necessary to be able to support and train their police force in a way that’s going to help them build trust with the community where it’s been damaged; to making sure that there are resources available to give young people alternatives to getting caught up in crime, whether that’s investing in libraries and community centers or upgrading the schools; that’s having robust after-school programs and summer school programs; that’s making sure people have access to health care; that means helping make sure the city has resources to provide the programs that some of the other communities and around the country are able to provide.
We have to figure out how we move the city as a whole forward, because Maryland will not succeed unless and until Baltimore succeeds. There’s no model of a successful state with its center city in distress.
Working on improving outcomes in the city is essential for the entire state of Maryland. And that’s what you have with me, is someone with deep experience in working with those programs, and of understanding over the last 30 years—even in my experience before I was an elected official—how these programs work. I’ve been fortunate early in my career to work for a number of elected officials from Baltimore. I have an understanding of why we’ve gotten to the place that we have, and recognize that it’s nothing new.
I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see this interesting book that came out a few months ago by Matthew Henson–he’s a professor at Hopkins–called “Baltimore: A Political History.” It is interesting to see that some of these problems in the dynamic between the state and the city go back centuries. It’s time for us to start making progress on changing that dynamic. And I think I’m the person best situated to get that done.
BFB: We, along with other outlets around town, were covering some of the horrible conditions that students were facing in City Schools this winter with the extreme cold. How would you help to address the long-term capital funding gap for City Schools as governor?
I’m the only one in the field who, again, has a record on this issue. I’d encourage you to go back and check with some of the people who played a pivotal role in the passage of the 21st Century Schools Act, which is the innovative state program that is helping to rebuild 25 schools across Baltimore. I played a pivotal role in making sure that that plan went forward, because even though I’m a legislator from Montgomery County, I fully believe that the state of Maryland and my constituents, all of them, the entire people of the state, benefit from having a well-functioning city school system. And essentially, that means good facilities. That’s why I made sure when other people walked away from that plan, that I put in the work to make sure we had a solution to get it done. And those schools now have taken longer than anyone had anticipated, but the first two of those schools opened this year, and another five are going to open shortly.
I think there are ways that we have to change the state’s approach to public school construction. We need to have a system that looks at not just Baltimore City, but the big jurisdictions, waste a lot of time with the duplication and effort between the local jurisdiction and the state. The state needs to get out of the way of the big jurisdictions making progress.
There’s got to be a value-added proposition to any of these relationships between the state and the local governments. And for the small jurisdictions that might build one or two schools a decade—I mean, Somerset County only has 10 schools in the entire jurisdiction—the state public school construction [program] provides a lot of value because the state has experts on its staff who can provide direction to a local school system so that they don’t have to duplicate that effort. Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Howard County, we all have the staff in the school systems. Then the state comes along and becomes yet another unhelpful bureaucratic barrier to getting things done. Nowhere does that problem show up more than with the Baltimore City Public Schools. It delays projects unnecessarily. The state should be there to help get things done, not make it more difficult.
There’s no interest in the Hogan administration to help the city—to be fair, not just the city. Larry Hogan isn’t interested in helping any jurisdiction where he can’t pick up votes. You have a highly politicized approach to state government that needs to come to an end. I want to see a state government that actually helps get things done. We have given the city funding, and the city has been unable to use the funding because our rules get in the way, and that needs to stop.
The governor of the state of Maryland is the most powerful governor in the country. I’m not talking about Larry Hogan. Our state constitution reserves more power, more authority, more responsibility for our governor than any other state constitution. The governor sets the budget. All the legislature can do is make line-item reductions in it, which is why you have this huge conversation and fight about mandates, because the only thing the legislature can do is mandate it in law, which the governor has to agree to. You’ve got, by far, the most extreme budgetary authority. Only the attorney general and the comptroller are elected; everyone else is appointed by the governor. State school board, the local school board–incredible authority that way. The governor’s executive branch sets all the regulations. He can change the public school regulations tomorrow if he wanted to. So over and over, we have a governorship that is primed to get things done for the people, if you have a governor who wants to do it. And with Larry Hogan, we’ve got a governor who just doesn’t care.
BFB: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received for campaigning and going for the governor’s office?
Don’t make any assumptions about the voters. There’s support to be had everywhere. Larry Hogan’s only path to victory is by convincing the Democrats that he’s unbeatable, because in poll after poll, while people say they like him and approve of the job he’s doing, they are not sold on his re-election. They are waiting for a more positive, more progressive vision for the future, and the governor who will actually get things done. If the definition of success is that he hasn’t royally screwed up anything—because we in the legislature, with me often front and center, have stopped him from implementing the bad policies he’s wanted to do, and he’s had to govern like a Democrat as a result. He’s been willing to hide his true self in order to get a second term. But make no mistake: We can’t afford to have a politically un-tethered governor when we have an unhinged president in the White House.
BFB: Do you have a favorite spot in Baltimore?
Sadly, with The Hippo closing—and having been closed for awhile now, I don’t know if people would even know what that is [laughs]—many of the places where as a young adult, I hung out in, have all gone away. So, as of late, my family has really enjoyed going out to R. House. My son, who’s 11, every time we go to Baltimore, ‘Can we have dinner there? Can we have lunch there?’
BFB: If you didn’t get the nomination, is there someone else you would back to run against the governor?
Well, I am committed to supporting whoever the Democratic nominee is.
This story has been corrected to reflect that Rushern Baker served in the House of Delegates from 1994 to 2003, and that Madaleno is not the only candidate to have served in a state-level elected office. We regret the error.
With less than a week left in Maryland’s 2018 legislative session, water-rights advocates are growing restless about the fate of proposed legislation that would ban sales of Baltimoreans’ properties at auction due to water bill-related debt.
Roughly one month ago, the Maryland House of Delegates passed Del. Mary Washington’s (D-Baltimore City) proposed ban on water lien tax sales in a unanimous 138-0 vote, sending it to the Senate.
“HB 1409 is just a couple steps away from becoming law,” Washington told Baltimore Fishbowl on Friday.
Despite its momentum, the legislation, after being referred to the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee , appears to have stalled. Sen. Ed Kasemeyer (D-Baltimore and Howard counties), chair of the committee, hasn’t advanced the bill, and legislative records indicate no hearing has been scheduled.
Kasemeyer has not responded to multiple voicemails and emails left with his office this week.
Washington said that for her bill to advance, Kasemeyer asked her to obtain a formal “letter of support” from the Baltimore City Senate Delegation. Baltimore Fishbowl obtained a copy of a letter she sent on March 30.
“At this point, I’m not surprised at the hurdles that one faces to pass good legislation, but I’m willing to do it,” she said.
Thomas Meyer, a senior organizer for the water-rights nonprofit advocacy group Food and Water Watch Maryland, which helped write Washington’s legislation, said four of the city’s five state senators have given their support for HB 1409. The only one who hasn’t, he said: Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore City).
Washington is presently running for Conway’s state Senate seat in Baltimore’s 43rd district.
“It has really broad support, not only in her distract but across the city,” Meyer said. “It’s on Senator Conway now to make sure the bill gets passed.”
Reached by phone Tuesday, a staffer in Conway’s office said the senator was not immediately available to comment, but was aware of both bills.
The city has traditionally auctioned off homes and churches with water bill-related debt of $750 or more each spring. Water-rights advocates have decried the practice, calling it an abuse of rights and an unfair method that, at times, is spurred by billing errors by the city’s Department of Public Works.
In December 2017, Mayor Catherine Pugh surprised some when she suspended the policy for homeowner-occupied housing, declaring 45 minutes into one of her weekly press briefings: “Water bill alone, your house cannot be taken. That is a mandate from this office, and we’re not having it.”
A separate piece of legislation was filed by Sen. Barbara Robinson, also of Baltimore, and co-sponsor Sen. Ronald Young (D-Frederick County) that would have codified Pugh’s change only for owner-occupied housing. In mid-March, however, she amended her bill to protect all homes and properties from auction.
In effect, her bill is the same as Washington’s.
Her proposal received a hearing in the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on March 20, legislative records show, but it also hasn’t budged.
Robinson has not responded to multiple messages requesting comment.
Asked whether she would prefer that her bill or Robinson’s advances, Washington said that ultimately, “the important thing for me is that this issue, that tax sales for water liens, are stopped in Baltimore City.” Still, she added, “HB 1409 is ready to go, so I don’t understand why they would pass the bill that would have to go to another house and then come back out.”
Rev. Dr. Alvin J. Gwynn Sr., pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in North Baltimore, nearly lost his church in 2017 after he received what he says were “erroneous and fraudulent” water bills.
“If you’re used to getting a bill like $120 every two months, and then suddenly you get a bill for $1,500,” he said. “The billing system is just really messed up.”
He remains optimistic about the fate of the proposals in Annapolis–either one–despite the session’s approaching finale on April 9.
“We’ve been down there, I’ve talked to them,” he said. “I think it’s gonna come out of that committee.”
Maryland’s medical marijuana pipeline is set for growth—and hopefully, more equitable racial representation–following the Senate’s passage of a bill Monday that would create 20 new growing or processing licenses and update the business-application process to account for race.
HB 2, proposed by Del. Cheryl Glenn (D-Baltimore), advanced to the governor’s desk after a 40-5 vote from state senators, legislative records show. The Sunfirst reported the news.
The measure would up the number of growing licenses in Maryland to 22, and the number of processing licenses to 28. The state already has 102 active or pre-approved dispensaries serving as retailers for prescription-carrying patients. Nearly 40 of them are up and running.
As The Sun’s Erin Cox noted, not all 20 of the new growing and processing licenses would be open to competition. Two are reserved for companies that sued the state in 2016, arguing they were passed over for less qualified applicants due to geographic reasons (one of them announced its new pre-approved growing license today. Four of the growing licenses are also reserved for existing processors, so as to streamline the bud supply chain.
Still, the bill’s passage on the final day of the legislative session comes as a win particularly for black lawmakers. One year earlier, their General Assembly colleagues failed on the final day of the 2017 session to enact the Legislative Black Caucus’ proposed fix for the industry’s racial disparity problem.
The new law, if signed by Gov. Larry Hogan, would attempt to balance the lopsided racial makeup of the state’s pool of marijuana growers and processors. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission issued 15 licenses for each task in 2016, but none of the companies chosen wound up being minority-owned.
Specifically, Glenn’s bill would require the commission to conduct “comprehensive outreach” to hopeful small, minority and female business owners and entrepreneurs through partnerships with historically black colleges and universities, trade groups and others.
It would also utilize a new application process factoring in applicants’ race and gender, and require existing cannabis firms to report back annually to the commission on their ownership’s racial and gender composition.
Glenn could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Other bills to change the state’s relationship with weed remain stuck in limbo as of 3 p.m. Monday. Sen. Bobby Zirkin’s (D-Baltimore County) proposal to increase the threshold for decriminalization from 10 grams to one ounce—meaning the person allegedly carrying said weed would face a fine, rather than jail time—passed the Senate in March, but hasn’t left committee in the House.
A more progressive bill that, if passed, would let voters decide via ballot measure whether to fully legalize, tax and regulate cannabis, has not left committee in either house of the legislature.
Hot House: 1291 Hollywood Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21403
Modern, farmhouse-style waterfront house, circa 2000, with asphalt roof, vinyl siding, concrete slab foundation. Five bedrooms, four and a half baths over 7,210 sq. ft. Private peninsula with 310 feet of shoreline, waterfront pool, large pier and eight feet of MLW (mean low water). Docking for multiple large boats. Completely updated and move-in ready. Double-height entrance foyer, nine-foot ceilings, two glass fireplaces. Open plan main floor with living room, family room, large gourmet eat-in kitchen. Main floor master suite with dressing area, marble bath and glass shower. Third floor “lighthouse room” with beacon. All with water views. Zoned heat and central air, driveway for three cars, one-acre property: $2,995,000
Open House: Sunday, April 7, 2-4 p.m.
What: A nice house in a spectacular setting, surrounded on three sides by water and facing south. The interior has many of the touches you would expect in a luxury home of this era — a theater room, lots of marble, interior columns — as well as a “personal pool,” which seems to mean a small pool. A fun touch is the third floor tower room, designed to look like a lighthouse. Inside is a blinking beacon that you can turn on to guide you home across the water at night. Listed for sale in 2017 at close to $4M, several price chops have recently made this house more interesting. If you’re looking for a reason to be in Annapolis this weekend, go have a look.
Where: The house fronts onto Fishing Creek, just south of Annapolis, in a community called Arundel On The Bay. It’s five miles to downtown Annapolis from here, or about a 15-minute drive. Across the water is Kent Island. Fishing Creek has some historical significance, as well as some ecological importance as a nursery for nearly every kind of fish that lives in the Chesapeake Bay.
NB: In the 1940s Arundel by the Bay became a choice summer resort community for wealthy African-Americans, mostly from Washington, D.C. After the 1970s, the population shifted, and today the community is home to both black and white residents.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh was a member of the State Senate from 1995 to 2015, working closely with Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller on some of the most defining issues affecting Marylanders — from protecting the environment to the death penalty. Miller died on Jan. 15 from cancer, and Baltimore Fishbowl asked Frosh, a prior chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, to recount some of his memories of working with Miller over decades.
My first real meeting with Mike Miller was about 30 years ago. I was a lowly delegate. He was President of the Senate.
I had a very controversial bill. It would have had Maryland adopt California’s vehicle emission standards. To the shock – and horror – of the House leadership, it passed the House of Delegates by one vote.
I got an immediate call from Sen. Gerald Winegrad [an Anne Arundel Democrat and environmental leader]. He told me to go see Mike Miller right away. He said that the President could assign the bill to the Education and Environmental Affairs Committee (EEA) or the Judicial Proceedings Committee (JPR). If it went to EEA. Winegrad could get it through. If it went to JPR, it was dead.
I called Miller’s office. To my surprise I got an appointment that afternoon. I arrived eager, but nervous. I told President Miller that the bill would clean up the air, prevent illnesses and deaths, help clean the Chesapeake Bay, and it wouldn’t cost consumers anything extra. I asked that he assign it to EEA.
Mike put his arm around me. He said: “Brian, under our rules, I had to assign it to JPR. But it sounds like you’ve got a great bill. Let me know what I can do to help.”
I walked down the hall, the knife sticking out of my back, thinking: “he just killed my bill, but what a nice guy.”
Mike was able to remain Senate President for as long as he chose. Other senators came and went. The body shifted leftward and Mike ended up on the conservative end of the Democratic spectrum, but he persevered. He was re-elected every year because of his colossal talent and his mastery of retail politics.
Mike had extraordinary emotional intelligence. He knew what his members wanted, and he knew what motivated them. He knew if they cared about a special office, a committee assignment, an opportunity to travel, a pet bill or project. He knew who could be moved by flattery, by attention or by sheer force of will. He deployed his charm, his humor, his wisdom and, occasionally, a raised voice to “help” his colleagues see the light.
What Mike understood was that every bill affected every person differently. He understood the impact of one vote on twenty other issues, and on forty-seven senators. He knew what to push, how to push, and on what issue. He could keep all those balls in the air, and he knew where they were going to land.
In the late 1990s, Mike was very much in favor of electric utility deregulation. I was opposed to it.
The opposition was not strong enough to kill the bill outright. But we put together an amendment that was so distasteful to utilities and electricity generators that they considered it a poison pill. It had a little something for everyone: energy conservation, assistance for low income families, etc. The amendment passed. It had around 26 votes, a solid majority of the Senate. Then, the bill tanked.
The next session, Mike brought the bill back. The previous sponsor of the amendment told me, “You know what, Brian — I can’t introduce the amendment, but don’t worry, I’m with you.”
This time, I introduced the amendment. It got 10 or 12 votes. Mike had worked the entire year to build support for the bill. It was like getting hit by a freight train. It didn’t even slow down.
The moral of the story was that occasionally you might be able to win a battle against Mike. But nobody ever won the war against Mike Miller in his Senate.
In 2002, there was a massive turnover in the Senate. Many members were running for higher office. Some were retiring, and some were defeated. During the summer, Mike asked me to come to Annapolis. I had no idea why. He said “Brian, when we come back in January, I want you to be majority leader.” I was caught by surprise. I thanked him, and without thinking, I said: “If Walter Baker [the Cecil County Democrat who was a longtime committee chairman] loses, could I be chairman of Judiciary Proceedings?”
Mike paused. He looked bemused and said, “OK.” Baker did lose, which disappointed Mike. But he kept his promise.
Mike Miller was a leader in every sense of the word. In the Senate, he demanded civility and respect for every member. He was tolerant of dissent, especially because he usually had the votes.
He worked across the aisle. He fought for issues that were toxic for him in his district, because he believed Maryland needed them. He cobbled coalitions together. He fought for his own initiatives and rarely failed.
Mike Miller has left a legacy that will likely never be matched. He was the Master of the Senate to such an extent Lyndon Johnson would have found a lot to admire – and to learn.
To no one’s surprise, the annual Christmas parade in Hampden and Medfield has been recognized by the internet as one of the best holiday festivities in the country.
The Mayor’s Annual Christmas Parade, which just completed its 45th run last weekend, earned enough votes online to win third place in a recent USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice poll. This year’s parade featured the classic mix of marching bands, gaggles of Harley-Davidson riders, floats with TV news celebrities, Mummers and Santa himself. Thousands parked themselves in chairs or stood on sidewalks to watch them move down Falls Road and onto W. 36th Street.
As a bonus, right behind the mayor’s parade in the 2017 poll was Annapolis’ Eastport Yacht Club Lights Parade in fourth place. The annual event just completed its 35th rendition on Saturday, with dozens of sailboats and yachts showboating through Maryland’s capital city. The Capital Gazette reports the two inches of snow that fell didn’t keep crowds away; event organizers said wind would have been the only element that could shut it down.
The yacht club’s parade took first in last year’s 10Best Readers’ Choice poll. Hampden and Annapolis ranked only behind the America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (second) Philly’s centuries-old Mummers Parade for 2017.
Click here and here to view photos recapping the local festivities.
In one short year, Trump 
